In an idle five minutes recently I worked out that Splendour is my thirty seventh production as director. This is only evidence of two things: I’ve been around a long time; and experience doesn’t teach you everything. Despite pantos (three), Shakespeare’s (eleven), my own adaptations (five) etc and having worked from the squalor of Edinburgh Fringe venues to the vastness of The Minack to the Rhoda, Electric and Nomad theatres, nothing prepared me for the novelty of directing a play in a rehearsal room or, as it’s rather grandly known, The Nomad Studio Theatre.
Actors and audience share an intimate, ‘warts and all‘,’ space, especially as, in a mad moment, I chose to place the audience on three sides of the acting area of approximately 25 square metres. I have had to recall that, despite the wonderful tolerance of theatre-goers, nobody only wants to see an actor’s back for an evening. I’ve never played 3D chess but I don’t imagine it is that much more difficult!
However, in case any of the foregoing is in danger of putting you off seeing ‘Splendour’ let me assure you that you are destined for an exciting hour and a half of theatre at its most vivid and challenging. You will also be witnessing some fine performances from the four actresses; Mary, Diane, Anna and Wendy are already, at half way through the rehearsal period, producing some truly astonishing and riveting performances. The intimacy of the Studio will, I am sure, only increase the claustrophobia of the four women’s plight as they await the return of the dictator. Be with them in the dying embers of the regime. It may not be an easy play but it is a rewarding one.
Ian Nichols
